Perspective 7: Hainich National Park – ancient woodland in the heart of Germany.

The largest continuous stretch of beech forest in Europe was for several decades a restricted military area. Today, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hainich National Park is Germany ’s newest UNESCO World Natural Heritage site: a ‘wild’ forest where trees, fungi, mosses and rare animals such as wildcats and black storks are free to flourish. Even in Germany, a country in which forests account for 31 per cent of the land area, this national park represents something truly special.